Consider the Oyster!

Oysters are a favorite Cape Cod shellfish. Our Wellfleet is home to the “Wellfleet oyster”, considered to be one of the worldâ€™s best oysters for generations. After Wellfleet’s native oyster population was nearly depleted in the early 1800’s, aquaculture has played the starring role in the comeback of these shellfish.

The Wellfleet oyster is an eastern oyster, crassostrea virginica by species, the same oyster that grows as far south as the Chesapeake Bay, and up into Canadaâ€™s Maritime Provinces to the north. Oysters are found on hard, sandy bottom or on rocks and piers. Most oysters can be picked off the bottom by hand at low tide and others can be harvested with a quahog or box rake. Wellfleet oysters are known to be long and strong-shelled.

I have always been told that it is not advisable to eat oysters that are attached to pressure treated lumber (piers or pilings) nor those that are not covered by water at low tide.

Oyster Fact: There have been oysters taken from the Indian Ocean that have tipped the scales at 532 pounds and a single one of these luscious monsters has provided a meal for 120 men!